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Lambda Legal Clients Wed in Chicago

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June 6, 2014
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On Monday, Jim Darby and Patrick Bova, lead plaintiffs in Lambda Legal's lawsuit seeking marriage for same-sex couples in Illinois, were married after over 50 years of love and commitment.

Questions about the marriage law in Illinois? Read our FAQ.

From the Huffington Post:

Darby and Bova first laid eyes on each other on July 17, 1963. Darby had ridden his motorcycle from his home at Grand and Halsted to Hyde Park to visit a friend.

"I was walking to the beach and I saw this tall handsome guy walking down the street reading a book," he said. "While he was walking. And I whistled at him! My friend panicked and said, 'We don't whistle at guys on the South Side!' But I didn't give a shit."

Bova, a University of Chicago student at the time, had been out "sort of cruising" to meet someone. He never heard the whistling and kept walking. But about 10:30 at night, Darby saw him again, peering into a bookstore window. Darby walked up and asked, "Do you have a light?"

"I thought to myself that is a corny line!" Bova remembered. "On the other hand, that was a fail-safe line in those days because most people smoked."

"And that was it," Darby said. By that September, Darby had landed a teaching job at a South Side high school and they were living together in Bova's apartment. They were "as for-keeps as possible, given our circumstances," Bova said.

"We didn't, of course, imagine getting married," Bova added. "I don't think anybody was talking about such things then."

Read the full article here.